The usual fix to "washouts" that Nature uses is covering the ground with plants. This holds the soil in place in spite of what water does at the surface. (It's the solution you're using at the lawn area.) I'm speculating that your landscape has not evolved enough to accomplish this or it has not specifically been addressed. The buried pipe & emitters--while they will work now and for some time--will likely become a maintenance issue or be subject to some type of failure at some point. I would not fret about them, but I would not add more. The other solution is simpler. It still bugs me the way the left side of " retaining wall" dips in at the walk. It adds a "busy," contrived quality to the scene. I think you would be better off going straight to the walk at 90*. Ideally, you would match the right side, but I can see why you didn't. I would have brought the right side out farther so this could happen. But if they are out of line with one another, I think it is preferable to the left side inward curve. Also, adding work for the future, your walk could stand to be widened, especially where it meets the stoop. An eight-inch wide strip of brick or pavers at each side would help. Whatever is planted adjacent to the walk should be low (6")

I do appreciate the time you're taking with our pathetic room. I was just over at the Re: Eecks! Help - Home Office Pics thread. Scrolling way down there is a picture of jan-in-wisconsin's bathroom and IMO it's lovely. Even the floor is right. If you have time, perhaps you could take a look. I would not have the tall cab in the middle, but aside from that and some small details, it may be the answer. Our vanity will be the same size as our present one - 60", just enough room for two sinks and counterspace, with the toilet next to it. The details on jan's cabs are very nice, close to simple Shaker. I would go lighter with the counter, just better for our room. I don't whether the work will be custom or not; it depends on what's available. No problem here with Corian for a bathroom, although our cats do walk on the counter, especially when I'm going to the bathroom (cat owners will understand the need of kitties to accompany their people if the toilet is going to be used). The idea of the surface looking solid from a distance, but spot-hiding fine grain closeup is very attractive. Come to think of it, maybe darker would be better. I walked around the bedroom for awhile, imagining wallpaper in the bath and yikes, not a good look at all! Way too fussy. So then - might it be a good idea to simply really lighten up the latte-cocoa color on the bath walls for the bedroom? Am planning to paint all the woodwork to match the off-white secretary. Looking at jan's room and the room beyond, I can picture that. The bathroom door is open almost all the time, both for the excellent cross-ventilation and also for access to the kitty litterbox behind the open door. So the two rooms really do need to coordinate. I have had two decorators and three GCs look at this bath over the years, and none have been as helpful as you are! And BTW, I hope it's okay to mention jan, even though she's not here!

I have been following Susanka's work for more than a decade. She uses very light wood in her house because she practices out of Minnesota, which is far north lattitude. I live in Seattle, WA and we are at 48th parallel. We have about 5 to 6 hours of grey daylight during Dec and Jan. It is terrible. We have to really pay attention to how we use natural light and materials around us, and houses with lighter wood feel better in this climate and location. Think Scandinavian furniture and colors and why they work in that environment. Having said that, Scandinavian sentiment of everything painted white/grey/light brey blue will work really well in that house. I would make sure that the cabinet style and trim style you pick is not too traditional with too many rounded or fluted ornamentation. The house really calls for crisp corners on all the wood work. You really need to pick finishing materials with modern esthetic in this house. If you end up picking white modern feeling kitchen, it will not work with black painted wood work. It will look too much like yo-yo, where you could not make up your mind. If you use light blue greys, then they will not work too well with orange/red/green colors as you already know. However, if you paint the woodwork in creamy yellowish/tan/brownish color, then you can keep the orange, red colors for accent. Black kitchen without too much uppers and light counter top would work quite well with your black woodwork. If you eliminate much of upper cabinets, then it will not feel too dark even with larger over hangs. I would paint the walls very light/bright. One of my architect friend designed her house that has that similar sentiment with Susanka's house with peaked high pitched roof. She used black slab doors and marble counter top with minimal uppers. it does not feel dark at all. Do you like painted white kitchens that have modern esthetic? You need to ask yourself if you are attracted to more traditional feel of white kitchens or if is the color of white in the kitchens you see. If you prefer the traditional look of white kitchens, you will not be very happy in this modern feeling "house". You need to accept that you want more traditional type of finished in your house. This will be difficult to pull off in this house because the rooflines are so non-traditional. You don't want that feeling that the kitchen looks out of place in the house.... Modern houses have a very different feel to the entire house. I live in a home with three walls are mostly windows and with no walls between LR/DR/kitchen. The wood cabinets do not feel "cheap" in these homes if you make sure the cabinets go with the house. If you put in the wrong type of cabinets, then they feel like builder grade cheap wood cabinets that do not belong in the house. Some of the ways to get less cheap looking wood cabinets it to look at custom made veneer cabinets. I would explore (look at lots of images) more modern looking kitchens using either dark or light wood and see how you like them. Even if you paint the kitchen a light color, the kitchen has to feel modern in that house. Are you okay with that? If you still are attracted to more traditional feel of "white" kitchens, then I think you need to really ask yourself if you want this house. Go look at some books that publish Susanka's work. They all have very similar vernacular in what she uses; maple or other light wood (beech is very commonly used Scandinavian wood) cabinets with shaker style or slab doors and simple mouldings/trim. I am asking a very obvious question but you have to really accept the architectural scheme and the decorating scheme of the house that you are committing to. Not everyone wants a modern house. You may be much happier in a traditional type of home. This is not too late to get what you really want! Often, people here see kitchens as a stand alone from the house. Your house is not like that. The entire house is viewed from one perspective as most modern houses are since there are no walls separating the rooms. The entire decorating scheme has to fit together in one quick "look". The more you steer away from that one quick look fitting in, the less pulled together your house will feel. Even if you don't love the light wood kitchen, if it works in the house and you LOVE the house, I would bite the bullet and go with it. I disagree with the comment that the painted walls last less than the kitchens. You will spend easily $5000 to $10,000 to have the living area repainted, if it is as big as you say it is. My living area costs about $3000 to $5000 to have it painted everytime. I don't change colors on a whim. I also pick paint color based on what is already there. Often, there are not many possible choices because I am limited by the wood tone, colors of furniture, flooring etc. Painting is NOT a cheap investment, unless you do it yourself. Even then, you are committing many many weekends to doing nothing but painting. Look at how many walls you have to paint. Each wall takes primer plus two coats of paint, minimum. I doubt that you will paint walls yourself since you have 5 kids.... When you put the entire house together, you will end up loving the entire house or not. If you love the house, even if there are elements that were not your first pick, you end up appreciating why you have to make those choices and accept them and will learn to love how the entire house pulled together. Good luck.

Sorry to disagree with Pat: I also think putting both pots in front of the window is a shock. I would have left them between the windows where you had them to begin with. That corner was too dark for jades. They like lots of light and will grow much better in front of the window. Unless they were in very dark conditions for a while and are moved suddenly into very sunny spot (I do not believe that is possible in winter, in Michigan), there should be no problem. Moving plants into strong sunlight from indoors could cause sunburn, and plants should be acclimatized. I believe Steven meant moving the plants from place to place - like from a store, where it sat for a while, to a house...Some plants will respond by dropping many leaves when location is changed (ficus Benjamina is known for doing that). Personally, I do not have that experience with jades. And I move them around a lot.